KeokeN Interactive is currently hard at work on Deliver Us Mars, but while work on the sequel progresses, the original game still has some life left in it. Since its relaunch for PC in 2019, Deliver Us the Moon has drawn quite a lot of positive responses from critics and audiences alike, and in the lead-up to Deliver Us Mars’ launch (whenever that happens), KeokeN Interactive is bringing the first game over to current-gen consoles and hoping to refine and enhance the experience even further with the more powerful hardware of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Here, we’re going to take a look at that upcoming port, and go over some crucial details you should know about it, and about the game itself.
PREMISE
If this will be the first time you play Deliver Us the Moon, you might not be aware of what the game exactly is about. Its name makes it pretty clear that it’s a sci-fi game set on the moon, of course, but what else? Deliver Us the Moon is a puzzle adventure game, which places most of its emphasis on the gameplay front on exploring environments and solving puzzles, alternative between first and third person camera perspectives- so don’t go in expecting a combat-heavy game.
STORY
One of Deliver Us the Moon’s more surprising elements when you’re playing it for the first time is how heavily it focuses on its story and storytelling. Set in an apocalyptic near-future, in Deliver Us the Moon, Earth is on the brink of a global crisis with nearly all of its natural resources having been depleted. You play as the last astronaut left on the planet, and in a do-or-die mission that may very well define the fate of the entire planet and the human race at large, you’re sent to the moon. Why? The moon was occupied once by the World Space Agency, and though Earth lost contact with the colony years ago, the moon might still hold the key to solving the energy crisis. Your mission is not only to uncover what happened to the colony on the moon, but also to find and secure the new energy source that could save Earth and everyone on it.
ANTI-GRAVITY
As you may have guessed given the game’s name and its premise, Deliver Us the Moon has quite a lot of anti-gravity stuff going on from a gameplay perspective. From exploration and traversal to puzzle solving and more, a decent chunk of the game sees you floating about in low or zero gravity environments and having to navigate your surroundings. Anti gravity gameplay is always fun (well, almost always- it depends on the execution, obviously), and Deliver Us the Moon is no different in that regard, so that’s definitely something to look forward to for those looking to dive into its offerings.
EXPLORATION
Deliver Us the Moon tends to be a very deliberately paced game most of the time, and a lot of that is down to the game’s emphasis on exploration. Traversing the moon and going through the abandoned bases and facilities there is, of course, a crucial part of the experience that makes up a bulk of the game. Thanks to enjoyable anti gravity traversal, exploration is consistently enjoyable, and it helps a great deal that the environments themselves are quite large. Don’t go in expecting a massive open world game, of course, but even so, there’s plenty of real estate to cover in Deliver Us the Moon.
DRIVING
Speaking of traversal and exploration- it’s not all on-foot. That would get tiring pretty quickly, right? No, Deliver Us the Moon also has plenty of driving sections. When you’re outdoors and exploring the lunar surface, a lot of that is done by driving a number of vehicles around. Driving in the game feels solid, and as you’d expect, combined with low gravity mechanics, the game’s driving sections tend to be quite a bit of fun.
HORROR-ESQUE
Deliver Us the Moon is not a horror game, technically. There’s no combat, so jump scares, no scary enemies or monsters to defend yourself against. But it can be a very chilling and unsettling game. For the vast majority of the experience, you’re completely isolated and exploring eerie and abandoned indoor environments and the still and silent outdoor lunar environments, and appropriately enough, that can be quite unnerving. That, combined with the mystery of what happened on the base as well as the game’s haunting and surprisingly effective soundtrack, makes for an experience that comes very close to being horror without actually being horror.
UPGRADE PATH
Deliver Us the Moon launched on PC before any other platform, before making its way over to PS4 and Xbox One in April 2020. Now that it’s coming to their respective successors, those who already bought the game on previous gen consoles will, fortunately enough, not be shortchanged. KeokeN Interactive and publisher Wired Productions have confirmed that those who already have previous gen versions of the game will be able to upgrade to Deliver Us the Moon’s PS5 or Xbox Series X/S version for no additional cost.
PRICE
What about those who have never owned or played Deliver Us the Moon and are looking to purchase it for the new time on current gen consoles? As you’d expect for a game that’s several years old at this point, its new upcoming release isn’t going to be a full-priced one. On PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, Deliver Us the Moon will cost $24.99. A physical version of the game will also be available for the same price, handled by Wired Productions’ own store in the UK, by Limited Run Games in the US, and by various retailers in European markets.
VISUAL UPGRADES
What sort of upgrades can you expect from Deliver Us the Moon when you play it on more powerful consoles though? Roughly speaking, it’ll be on the same level us the game’s PC version, though it will still be a noticeable upgrade over previous gen console versions. Deliver Us the Moon will run at native 4K on PS5 and Xbox Series X (though there’s no word on what its resolution will be on Xbox Series S). In addition to that, you can expect other visual enhancements like ray-traced shadows and reflections.
FASTER LOAD TIMES
As you’d expect, Deliver Us the Moon on current gen consoles will have other enhancements beyond its visual upgrades as well- like significantly reduced load times. Faster load times is the sort of enhancement that you expect to see in pretty much all games releasing natively for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S now, thanks to their SSDs, so it’s not surprising to see KeokeN Interactive promising that for its game as well. Exactly how much of an improvement we can expect in this area remains to be seen though.
DUALSENSE FEATURES
Finally, while those playing Deliver Us the Moon on Xbox Series X/S won’t be able to experience this, those playing the game on PS5 will get additional enhancements in the form of support for DualSense’s features. Specifically, KeokeN Interactive has confirmed that the game will make use of the controller’s adaptive triggers and speakers. Perhaps the implementation of the DualSense in Deliver Us the Moon will also give us an idea of what to expect from the upcoming Deliver Us Mars on that front.